Periodic Table Fun Facts

A Brief Fun Fact of Every Element in the Periodic Table

Atomic Number 1: Hydrogen (H): Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, it’s one of the most important building blocks of life!

Atomic Number 2: Helium (He): Helium was first discovered in the sun, which is why it’s named after the Greek word for sun (helios).

Atomic Number 3: Lithium (Li): Lithium is so light it floats on water; you can even build a raft from it, but it reacts violently with water, so don’t try it.

Atomic Number 4: Beryllium (Be): Beryllium was originally named glucinium since it tasted really sweet.

Atomic Number 5: Boron (B): Boron is the second hardest element in the world, right after diamond (which is made of carbon).

Atomic Number 6: Carbon (C): Carbon is either in the form of soft, slippery graphite, or hard, shiny diamond.

Atomic Number 7: Nitrogen (N): Nitrogen is used to flash-freeze food, such as ice cream!

Atomic Number 8: Oxygen (O): Oxygen was extremely common in the prehistoric ages (roughly 300 million years ago), which allowed bugs to grow gigantic.

Atomic Number 9: Fluorine (F): Fluorine is the most reactive element, even setting steel wool pads and bricks on fire!

Atomic Number 10: Neon (Ne): Neon is rare on Earth, but it’s the fifth most abundant element in the universe!

Atomic Number 11: Sodium (Na): At room temperature, sodium is so soft you can cut it using a butter knife!

Atomic Number 12: Magnesium (Mg): If magnesium is lit on fire, you can't put it out with water.

Atomic Number 13: Aluminium (Al): Aluminium is the most used metal on earth, used even more than iron!

Atomic Number 14: Silicon (Si): Silicon is found in rocks, sand and clay, but we mostly find it in computer chips.

Atomic Number 15: Phosphorus (P): Phosphorus can glow in the dark!

Atomic Number 16: Sulfur (S): Skunk spray contains lots of sulfur, which is why it smells like rotten eggs!

Atomic Number 17: Chlorine (Cl): By itself, chlorine is a nasty gas that can cause severe burns.

Atomic Number 18: Argon (Ar): Argon doesn’t react very much, so its name is based on the Greek word for lazy.

Atomic Number 19: Potassium (K): Like sodium, potassium is so soft you can cut it with a butter knife.

Atomic Number 20: Calcium (Ca): Because it’s too reactive to be found pure, calcium is usually found paired with other materials.

Atomic Number 21: Scandium (Sc): This element is more common on the sun and moon than on Earth.

Atomic Number 22: Titanium (Ti): Surprisingly, for a metal, titanium can be stronger than diamond!

Atomic Number 23: Vanadium (V): Vanadium was used by Henry Ford to produce one of the first cars.

Atomic Number 24: Chromium (Cr): Chromium is the secret ingredient to stainless steel: it stops the steel from rusting!

Atomic Number 25: Manganese (Mn): Lumps of manganese the size of potatoes are found at the bottom of the ocean.

Atomic Number 26: Iron (Fe): The reason Mars is red is because it has a high iron concentration, making it rust red!

Atomic Number 27: Cobalt (Co): Despite being named after a color, cobalt isn’t actually colored cobalt in its metal form.

Atomic Number 28: Nickel (Ni): The nickel coin isn’t 100% made of nickel, as it’s 25% nickel and 75% copper.

Atomic Number 29: Copper (Cu): Copper, along with gold, was the first metal to be used by humans.

Atomic Number 30: Zinc (Zn): Many types of coins mainly use zinc as their main ingredient.

Atomic Number 31: Gallium (Ga): Gallium, in its liquid form, can destroy aluminium cans.

Atomic Number 32: Germanium (Ge): Germanium is named after the country Germany.

Atomic Number 33: Arsenic (As): A powerful Italian family, the Borgias, killed many of their enemies with Arsenic, as it was super poisonous.

Atomic Number 34: Selenium (Se): Selenium is important to have in your diet: you can get it from things like yellowfin tuna and Brazil nuts!

Atomic Number 35: Bromine (Br): The Romans used bromine to dye their togas purple!

Atomic Number 36: Krypton (Kr): Krypton inspired the fictional substance, kryptonite, which is Superman’s weakness.

Atomic Number 37: Rubidium (Rb): Rubidium is used to make the world’s most accurate atomic clocks.

Atomic Number 38: Strontium (Sr): Strontium is used to make a brilliant red color in fireworks!

Atomic Number 39: Yttrium (Y): Adding a little bit of yttrium to magnesium and aluminium alloys makes them way stronger than they originally were!

Atomic Number 40: Zirconium (Zr): This element is used in nuclear reactors since it doesn’t absorb neutrons.

Atomic Number 41: Niobium (Nb): Niobium was once named Columbium, named after Christopher Columbus, before being renamed.

Atomic Number 42: Molybdenum (Mo): This element was once used in pencils since it looked a lot like graphite. 

Atomic Number 43: Technetium (Tc): Technetium was the first ever element to be artificially produced!

Atomic Number 44: Ruthenium (Ru): A company uses ruthenium to tip their fountain pens, meaning the metal won’t corrode since ruthenium is resistant to corrosion.

Atomic Number 45: Rhodium (Rh): Rhodium is the rarest metal in the world that isn’t radioactive.

Atomic Number 46: Palladium (Pd): Palladium is capable of absorbing up to 900 times its own volume in hydrogen!

Atomic Number 47: Silver (Ag): Ancient people placed silver coins in barrels to make the water inside safe to drink since silver ions can deter bacteria.

Atomic Number 48: Cadmium (Cd): Cadmium was originally used to make yellow pigment before being discovered it was dangerous.

Atomic Number 49: Indium (In): Indium is so soft that you can bite through it! (Just don’t swallow it, you’ll probably die from it.)

Atomic Number 50: Tin (Sn): In cold weather, tin turns powdery and brittle, which is called tin pest.

Atomic Number 51: Antimony (Sb): Antimony was first used by the Egyptians as eyeliner, before being discovered it was toxic.

Atomic Number 52: Tellurium (Te): If you handle tellurium for too long, it makes your breath smell like you just ate a whole clove of garlic!

Atomic Number 53: Iodine (I): Iodine often goes into salt to make sure your body has enough iodine in it!

Atomic Number 54: Xenon (Xe): Xenon’s name comes from the Greek word for “foreigner” or “stranger.”

Atomic Number 55: Cesium (Cs): Cesium only needs a warm and sunny day to make it melt!

Atomic Number 56: Barium (Ba): Barium is often served to a patient in the form of a drink, so that the barium outlines the patient’s stomach when they're put behind an X-ray machine.

Atomic Number 57: Lanthanum (La): Lanthanum is often used to make hybrid cars!

Atomic Number 58: Cerium (Ce): Cerium is so abundant, it’s even more common than copper!

Atomic Number 59: Praseodynium (Pr): Its name comes from the two Greek words translating to “Green Twin” since praseodynium’s salt is colored green.

Atomic Number 60: Neodymium (Ne): Despite being used to make extra-powerful magnets, neodymium itself is too brittle to be used purely!

Atomic Number 61: Promethium (Pm): Promethium is super rare, since it's so radioactive that it breaks up super quickly.

Atomic Number 62: Samarium (Sm): Samarium, along with cobalt, was used to make the world’s first headphones!

Atomic Number 63: Europium (Eu): Europium is used in euro banknotes to help catch forgery, since it glows red under UV light.

Atomic Number 64: Gadolinium (Gd): Gadolinium is super magnetic, but it only stays that way if it’s kept super cold.

Atomic Number 65: Terbium (Tb): Terbium alloys literally get shorter or longer in a magnetic field, which is helpful when used in sonar equipment.

Atomic Number 66: Dysprosium (Dy): Dysprosium’s name means “hard to get” since the scientist who discovered it had to work really hard to find it.

Atomic Number 67: Holmium (Ho): Holmium is used in extremely powerful magnets for things like Hospital MRI scans!

Atomic number 68: Erbium (Er): Erbium is used to tint glass pink, which is helpful when making rose-colored sunglasses!

Atomic Number 69: Thulium (Tm): Thulium is so soft by itself, you can cut it with a butter knife!

Atomic Number 70: Ytterbium (Yb): This element is named after Ytterby, Sweden, which also named erbium and terbium!

Atomic Number 71: Lutetium (Lu): Lutetium was once believed to be so rare that an ounce would cost you $75.

Atomic Number 72: Hafnium (Hf): Hafnium is always found with zirconium, but it’s really tricky to separate them.

Atomic Number 73: Tantalum (Ta): Tantalum is named since the scientists who attempted to get it in its pure form seemed to be tantalized into doing so!

Atomic Number 74: Tungsten (W): Tungsten was once called “wolf dirt” since it kept getting in the way when trying to extract tin.

Atomic Number 75: Rhenium (Re): Rhenium is so rare, it’s even more precious than gold!

Atomic Number 76: Osmium (Os): Osmium is tougher than tungsten, yet it smells so bad that it’s rarely used in jewelry!

Atomic Number 77: Iridium (Ir): Iridium is so common in meteorites that when the meteor that killed the dinosaurs struck the earth, it left an inch-wide layer of iridium-rich clay around the world!

Atomic Number 78: Platinum (Pt): Platinum is sometimes used for car grills since it makes the fumes coming out of the car a little bit cleaner.

Atomic Number 79: Gold (Au): Gold is found in eucalyptus trees, as the roots pull out gold pieces underground when trying to get nutrients.

Atomic Number 80: Mercury (Hg): Mercury was once used for top hats, as they dipped them into a mercury concoction to bind the felt together.

Atomic Number 81: Thallium (Tl): Thallium is so dangerous that it’s banned everywhere, as this element poisons the victim slowly, and it’s hard to detect.

Atomic Number 82: Lead (Pb): Lead was once used by the Romans to build pipes for their plumbing system, which is why it gets its atomic symbol (Pb) from the Latin word plumbos.

Atomic Number 83: Bismuth (Bi): When melted down, bismuth can make beautiful, staircase-shaped iridescent crystals.

Atomic Number 84: Polonium (Po): This element is so radioactive, it is often named as the most dangerous element in the world!

Atomic Number 85: Astatine (At): Astatine is so rare, we haven’t even discovered what its true color actually is!

Atomic Number 86: Radon (Rn): Being a colorless and odorless gas that's made by uranium decaying in dirt, it can accumulate in people’s basements and can be extremely dangerous.

Atomic Number 87: Francium (Fr): Francium is so radioactive that it easily splits apart so quickly that it can’t stay as a solid for long.

Atomic Number 88: Radium (Ra): Radium was once used in the form of paint to color watch hands, but was later found to be extremely dangerous.

Atomic Number 89: Actinium (Ac): This element is so radioactive that it glows blue in the dark!

Atomic Number 90: Thorium (Th): People once considered making thorium-flavored toothpaste, until they realized it’s radioactive.

Atomic Number 91: Protactinium (Pa): This element is so radioactive that it’s a huge relief that it’s super rare to find.

Atomic Number 92: Uranium (U): Scientists discovered a type of lichen that loves to feed off of radiation from decaying uranium.

Atomic Number 93: Neptunium (Np): This element was named after Neptune since it’s after Uranium on the periodic table!

Atomic Number 94: Plutonium (Pu): When the bomb that was used on the city of Nagasaki was constructed, it only required 6 lbs of plutonium to make a devastating impact that destroyed the city.

Atomic Number 95: Americium (Am): Americium is most often found in smoke detectors; you may even have some in yours right now!

Atomic Number 96: Curium (Cm): When curium was first discovered, the scientists who found it kept it a secret in case it had military uses, but when World War 2 was over, he announced his secret on Quiz Kids!

Atomic Number 97: Berkelium (Bk): This element is named after a university in California, where it was first made.

Atomic Number 98: Californium (Cf): This element is named after the state of California!

Atomic Number 99: Einsteinium (Es): This element is named after Albert Einstein, an important scientist.

Atomic Number 100: Fermium (Fm): Fermium is This element is named after physicist Enrico Fermi.

Atomic Number 101: Mendeleevium (Md): This element is named after Dmitri Mendeleev, the “Father of the Periodic Table.”

Atomic Number 102: Nobellium (No): This highly radioactive metal is named after Alfred Nobel.

Atomic Number 103: Lawrencium (La): This element is named after Ernest O. Lawrence.

Atomic Number 104: Rutherfordium (Rf): This element is predicted to be able to act like hafnium, but will be much more short-lived.

Atomic Number 105: Dubnium (Db): This element is named after Dubna, Russia, where the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research is located.

Atomic Number 106: Seaborgium (Sg): This element is named after chemist Glenn T. Seaborg.

Atomic Number 107: Bohrium (Bh): Bohrium has practically no use at all due to its rarity.

Atomic Number 108: Hassium (Hs): This element is believed to share chemical similarities with osmium and rutherfordium.

Atomic Number 109: Meitnerium (Mt): This element is named after chemist Lise Meitner.

Atomic Number 110: Darmstadtium (Ds): This element has no use since it disappears almost immediately.

Atomic Number 111: Roentgenium (Rg): Roentgenium is predicted to have an anatomy that’s similar to gold.

Atomic Number 112: Copernicium (Cn): This element is named after Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish mathematician.

Atomic Number 113: Nihonium (Nh): This element is named after Nihon, aka Japan.

Atomic Number 114: Flerovium (Fl): This element is named after Georgy N. Flerov, a soviet nuclear physicist.

Atomic Number 115: Moscovium (Mc): This element is named after the city of Moscow, located in Russia.

Atomic Number 116: Livermorium (Lv): Due to its rarity, this element has practically no uses except for its study in science.

Atomic Number 117: Tennessine (Ts): This element is named after the state of Tennessee, which is a part of the United States.

Atomic Number 118: Oganesson (Og): This element is named after Yuri Oganessian, a physicist.

Written By Mason Oh

Edited By Oliver Handoko

Art By Mason Oh